The Atlanta HealthTech scene is starting the new year off strong with a series of funding and acquisition announcements.
This comes off the heels of an impressive 2021, in which 38 Metro Atlanta-based HealthTech ventures raised funds, according to available Crunchbase data. Some of the most noteworthy deals included Florence Healthcare ($80 million raise in May), OncoLens ($7 million Series A in January),and Medxoom ($8 million raise in April).
One of the teams that raised funds in the first few days of 2022 is Copient Health, led by veteran HealthTech entrepreneur Michael Burke. Burke previously served as the founder/CEO of Clockwise.MD (acquired by DocuTAP) and Dialog Medical (now part of Taylor Healthcare), which were both part of the first wave of Atlanta healthcare IT success stories.
“There’s always this debate as to where the healthcare IT capital is in the United States. Atlanta has won the vote on a number of occasions, largely due to the older legacy base of customers,” Burke told Hypepotamus. “It’s only the past probably five to ten years have they really started incubating a large number of startups, That’s been supported by organizations like the Atlanta Tech Village and ATDC, and strong partnerships between Georgia Tech and Emory.”
If the first few weeks of 2022 are any signal, it could be an impressive year for local HealthTech startups. Here are a few teams to note:
COPIENT: SORTING OUT SUPPLY & DEMAND IN THE OPERATING ROOM
Launching a HealthTech startup focused specifically on operating rooms in the later part of 2019 was both a blessing and a curse, Burke told Hypepotamus.
Copient Health had pilots planned for March 2020, but the pandemic would put those on hold. “One of the impacts was the elective surgeries were canceled or postponed for an extended period of time. It was actually a blessing to us because most startups incur quite a bit of technical debt, but we had the opportunity to work on ours for a three to six month period,” Burke added.
Burke says Copient Health is ready to help streamline hospital and surgery centers’ operations by optimizing how they allocate time and resources. This is particularly important, Burke says, because ORs “fund the mission for the hospital and represent the majority of the revenue that a hospital generates.”
Copient Health looks to fix the “supply and demand problem” as surgeons look for open operating rooms. The platform does this by using machine learning to identify when a room is likely to be vacant and then distributing those collected time slots.
The team announced this week that it has closed a $3.2 million Series A investment led by Atlanta Ventures. First Trust Capital Partners out of Illinois and previous investor Atlanta Seed Company also joined the round.
TRELLA: ANALYTICS + SALES FOR THE POST-ACUTE MARKET
Trella Health, an analytics tool designed specifically for the healthcare space, finished 2021 with a growth investment from Chicago-based Cressey & Company and Atlanta-based Panoramic Ventures.
The team is starting off 2022 with its first acquisition. The team is acquiring Tennessee-based PlayMaker Health, a platform that provides post-acute data analytics. The goal is to create a CRM that is the “post-acute care industry’s most comprehensive market intelligence, engagement, and growth platform,” according to a press statement released by Trella.
Gregg Boyle is the CEO of PlayMaker Health and will serve as an advisor to Trella, according to LinkedIn. To date, PlayMaker Health is used by 2,300 home health, hospice, HME, infusion, and long-term care places.
For Trella President/CEO Scott Tapp, the acquisition is set to bring customers a “single platform to help them focus their strategy, empower sales and marketing, and advance their business. In addition, this acquisition adds a fantastic group of industry experts to our team, while opening the door to new adjacent end markets, including home medical equipment (HME) and infusion.”
MEDTRANS GO: STOPPING MEDICAL APPOINTMENT CANCELLATIONS
Atlanta-based MedTrans Go is looking to tackle $150 billion problem that is medical appointment cancellations. Its B2B platform looks to be a one-stop-shop for non-emergency medical transportation, interpretation, telemedicine, and delivery services.
The founding team includes CEO Dana Weeks, and President Dr. Obi Ugwonali.
MedTrans Go ended the last few weeks of 2021 with a $2.6 million funding round.
